Prior art hard disk drives have a problem with stopping the read-write head(s) of an actuator assembly from swinging violently away from the disk spindle, possibly crashing and damaging the read-write heads. Mechanical shocks and vibrations acting upon a hard disk drive may cause such swinging. Certain hard disk drive applications, such as hand held computers, notebook computers, and MP3 players are especially susceptible to these shocks and vibrations. The prior art addresses this problem by using at least one separate part for the outside diameter crash stop, known herein as a crash stop rubber. This part, or parts, adds to the cost of producing the hard disk drive. What is needed is a cost effective mechanism providing the outside diameter crash stop while reducing the parts count.
These prior art, hard disk drives also have a problem with air turbulence affecting the read-write heads. The air turbulence often displaces the read-write heads, adversely affecting the ability of the hard disk drive to follow a track. For example, contemporary hard disk drives often have track densities around 20,000 tracks per inch, or more. As the track densities increase, the need to reduce any read-write head positional deviations also increases. Reducing the airflow at the read-write heads reduces read-write head positional variances. What is needed are new cost effective ways to reduce the air flow near the read-write heads.